1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recording, reproducing, and recording/reproducing apparatuses and methods thereof, and more particularly, is suitably applied to a recording apparatus and a recording method for endlessly-recording image data and/or voice data (hereafter, referred to as AV data) in a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this type of recording apparatus, for example, a tape recording medium is used as a recording medium. In this case, in the recording apparatus, the recording apparatus makes it possible to endlessly-record AV data to be recorded by repeating a series of operations such as recording the AV data from one end to the other end of a tape recording medium, then rewinding the tape recording medium, and recording the AV data from one end to the other end of the tape recording medium again.
However, in the recording apparatus using the tape recording medium, it is necessary to rewind the tape recording medium whenever recording the AV data up to the other end of the tape recording medium and thereby, the endless-recording operation of the AV data becomes troublesome.
Therefore, in this type of recording apparatus, by connecting one end and the other end of the recording medium to form the recording medium like a ring, the AV data can be continuously endlessly-recorded in the ring-formed tape recording medium without rewinding the recording medium as described above.
Moreover, in this type of recording apparatus, there is a recording apparatus using a disc recording medium as a recording medium, in which the AV data is continuously endlessly-recorded by repeating the operations of recording the AV data in the AV data recording region of the disc recording medium from the head up to the end of the region and then recording the data in the region from the head up to the end of the region again.
However, in the aforementioned various types of recording apparatuses, the AV data is endlessly-recorded by successively overwriting the AV data returning from the ending point to the starting point of the AV data recording region on the recording medium (tape recording medium or disc recording medium). Therefore, there is a problem that the current recorded AV data is lost because of overwriting if the recording medium goes around and returns. In order to avoid overwriting of the AV data recorded in the recording medium, the recording medium has to be replaced. However, if it takes time to replace the recording medium, the desired AV data can not be recorded.